Predictive dialing systems have greatly increased the efficiency of telemarketing operators, allowing them to spend their time talking to prospects rather than doing the mechanical tasks necessary to establish contact with the prospect. These systems automatically dial telephone numbers from a list stored in a prospect database. Busy signals and unanswered calls are recycled for dialing later, and answered calls are put in a queue to await a non-busy operator. Specified information from the database about the prospect is displayed to the non-busy operator receiving the call. Thus the operators are supplied with a steady stream of prospects on answered telephone lines along with the required information about the prospects. Various computer programs are used to attempt to match the flow of answered calls to non-busy operators, minimizing both the waiting time for prospects and the idle time for operators.
A further desired feature of such systems is the ability to record the outcome of the calls made in the prospect database. The system manager is thereby provided with the information he requires about the call results. As well, typically, once all numbers in the database have been dialed, the system starts through the list of telephone numbers again. The results recorded for the previous call to this number will indicate whether the number should be dialed again or skipped.
Present systems, wherein a computer terminal is available to each operator, allow considerable detailed information to be relayed firstly to the operator about the contact, and secondly to the computer database about the outcome of the call. In many applications however, such detailed information is not necessary, and indeed it may not be necessary that the operator have any information about the prospect he is talking to. Present systems require a computer terminal at each operator station. The prospect information is displayed on the computer screen and the outcome of the call is entered on the computer keyboard. In some systems, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,412 to Ramot et al., control of the telephone functions is also done through the computer keyboard or mouse. Present systems also require a computer network linking all computers to the predictive dialer and the computer database. This network is a frequent cause of failure and downtime in present systems.
A more economical system, with more limited information transfer capabilities would be desirable. Such a system would also be easier to teach to new operators. As well, with a simplified information input system, it is less likely that input errors will occur and the time spent recording call results is reduced.